Pokémon Stadium

With the incredibly explosive popularity of the Pokémon series Nintendo decided it best to make a home console game to accompany the handheld gems. Originally designed for the N64DD (Dynamic Drive) add-on system the game was released with only 42 playable Pokémon, unfortunately this is because the Dynamic Drive add-on proved to be a bust and the programmers had to rush a product out resulting in the original Pokémon Stadium. Ironically the D.D. add-on was supposed to be Nintendo’s answer to the PlayStation and its high disc storage space, though due to cost issues the system failed.

If your system needs an add-on to compete, then its best to just make a new system.

About a year after the atrocity that was the D.D. Pokémon Stadium game, an actual playable version was released which contained all the Generation 1 Pokémon along with a host of added mini-games, and a bunch of special unlockable goodies. This version of Pokémon stadium was eventually ported to the U.S. and was one of the few games on the system to utilize the N64 Transfer pack (17 games in total only 6 of which were ported to the U.S.).

Now I’m sure are probably wondering what could this game possibly offer me? Well, firstly you get to battle your Pokémon in…

Thank you Harry.

That’s merely the tip of the iceberg though as that’s just an aesthetic change; Pokémon Stadium also comes with a host of modes such as Gym Leader Castle, Stadium, Kids Club, Free Battle, Professor Oak’s Lab and Gameboy Tower. So lets look at each of these now so you can full understand how amazing this game is:

Lets start off with Gym Leader Castle; Gym Leader castle is just what the name implies, it’s a rather large castle where you battle the iconic gym leaders from the previous games. Though by no means will this be an easy feat as first you must pass through the five trainers standing in your path. Each of which Pokémon will be at a proportionate level to your own. So you should aspire to have your team of a flat level like 50, 70, or 100; or you can just rent your Pokémon of which they will all be level 50. Just like in the handheld games the Gym Leaders each have a them to them, Brock has rock, Lt.Surge has Electric, and Misty has Water, etc. Once you have cleared all eight Gym Leaders you fight your Rival, and upon beating him you face the ultimate Pokémon.

What? Come on your not even trying with these jokes.

Upon defeating the ultimate Pokémon you unlock a special Pokémon. Which can be transferred onto your Pokémon Red, Blue or Yellow game. Then you get to play Round 2 where all the gym leaders and trainers are stronger and upon clearing that you unlock another special thing.

Oh and you get some badges too, which is cool, I guess.

The next funtastic mode of this game is the Stadium mode. There are four different cups to choose from each with its own set of rules for what Pokémon are legal, level restrictions and the like. The real kicker here is that this mode is multiplayer as you can play using cup rules in Free Battle Mode.

 

One sided matchups will naturally happen.

Each cup has four difficulties, Poke ball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball, and Finally Master Ball. The difficulty comes in the form of more competent opponents with stronger Pokémon then you. Now I mentioned earlier something about renting Pokémon, well let me break it down for you how that works as you will probably have to rent a Pokémon(s) from time to time.

How Renting Works:

• When selecting what Pokémon you are going to use you are brought to a screen which asks you if you want to use Pokémon from your game (if you have it in the transfer pack)
• Rental Pokémon will always be at the lowest possible level for any particular battle or cup, this is typically Level 50.
• You may only choose from 149 Pokémon, the 150th you need to unlock.

You can mix and match your Pokémon with ones you own and rentals, for some this can really help even out a team. Upon clearing a cup you are presented with a trophy representing the difficulty in which you completed it on.

No that’s not real metal.

Upon clearing each cup four times you unlock an upgrade to the Gameboy Tower, clear through it one more time and you net yourself another one.

Next up is the greatest part of the entire game (in my opinion), the Kids club. The Kids Club is a collection of Multiplayer mini-games that are addicting as they are fun. These games are naturally designed for multiple players, but that by no means you shouldn’t try it out against some computers, practice makes perfect, and perfection can be rubbed in the faces of your friends. There are two ways of playing a free play mode where you pick a game and play it, and a competition mode titles “Who's the best?” where you and whomever else is playing with you aspires to win several rounds in a row to see whom out of your group is the best.

The mini-games themselves are all interesting and fairly varied. (I won’t go into all of them but I’ll give you a  few examples of what you’ll be experiencing.) You have Run, Rattata, Run which is a foot race played by rapidly pressing A and hopping over barriers by pressing up on the D-pad.

This is illegal in some countries.

Another fun game is the Sushi-go-Round where you play as a Lickitung and attempt to build up the largest bill by eating the most expensive food.

There are obviously some subtle metaphors here.

You move your lickitung around with the thumb-stick and devour the food with the A button. The more of the same food you eat the more the score you receive multiplies. However you have to watch out as some spicy food will cause your lickitung to flip out for a little while as it tries to cool its mouth down.

Another mini-game is Clefairy says which is Simon says using the D-pad. Yep that’s it, its Simon says and if you mess up five times you lose. So make sure you practice working up your short term memory.

Glasses?

You should have a good enough mental picture of what to expect, there are a couple more games, Magikarp Splash where you attempt to splash hop up and hit a counter as fast as you can, Snore War where you attempt to put your opponents to sleep by hitting A at the right moment, Thundering Dynamo where you alternate between jamming on the A and B buttons to build up power faster then your opponents, Ekans Hoop Hurl, where you attempt to toss an Ekans onto Digletts, and finally there's Rock harden where you play as a Metapod or Kakuna and try to last the longest by utilizing harden to keep from being crushed by boulders.

Free Battle is as the name implies a mode that allows you to battle free of restrictions or rules, despite this you have the option of using the cup rules. You choose your six Pokémon's and then mix em’ up before the battle in the order you choose.

Or if you’re neurotic like me you’ll just put them in the order you picked them.

From there on its all up to your own strategies to determine who wins, as the battle system is identical to the system used in the previous games, but in 3D!

For my ramble on the battle system see here.

Professor Oaks Lab is essentially a trading station, that is the only real function it serves. Sad. On the plus side is has a box system so you can store your Pokémon in your stadium game if your box in your game was starting to get crowded, so that’s kinda cool.

You have failed me Pokémon Prof.

The final main mode is the Gameboy Tower (dun dun dun), the Gameboy Towers acts as an emulator which allows you to play your Pokémon handheld games (Red, Blue, Yellow) on the TV. It serves a similar function to that of the Super Gameboy only with better sound quality and arguably better picture as well. Its more of a gimmick then an actual mode, but for what its worth its pretty neat. Though there are perks to using it, if you beat the game once through you unlock the Doduo tower which gives you the option of play the games at 2X speed (imagine the battling and catching you could do at double the speed!) and if you clear the game again you can unlock another neat goody for the tower. Fun times~

Pokémon Stadium is a very solid game by itself and fans of the series will all enjoy it, if not for the battles then at least for the mini-games. The American release of the game has few flaws as by the time of its release it already had most of them ironed out after the atrocious release that was the first version in Japan. In my opinion this game is best enjoyed by using you own Pokémon from you own games, renting is fun and quick but nothing feels more satisfying then beating the game with the Pokémon you worked long and hard to train. So if you wanna use your own Pokémon you will need at least two things aside from this game:

1. A Transfer Pak
2. A Pokémon Game

With these things in hand you can fully experience the majesty of this game.

Behold the majesty.

For fans of the series this is a game you cannot pass up, its relatively inexpensive and loads of fun. So get on that.

Do it or you’ll make Lygast cry.

Werewolf: The Last Warrior (NES)

When I was a young kid, I would pretend to be the wolfman. A lot, in fact. I don't know exactly why I was so attracted to pretending to be a werewolf but I think it had to do with the movies "Monster Squad" and "American Werewolf in London." Sure, Dracula had all of the ladies and Frankenstein's monster had human feelings buried somewhere beneath that grey, reassembled frame; but the werewolf was a ruthless killing machine. One day playing werewolf on the playground, I bit a kid on the leg. That sort of ended the whole fascination with play-acting in one fell swoop.

Embarrassing childhood stories aside - I knew I had to find an outlet for my ridiculous werewolf fascination. Luckily, I was the proud owner of an NES and I stumbled across the game "Werewolf: The Last Warrior" at the local Toys 'R Us. Released in 1990 by Data East, this game is just what I needed to let out the inner werewolf in me; even if only for a few hours. Is this game perfect? No. However, it's just the right kind of weird to satisfy me and I have a hunch you guys & gals will dig it too.

Most of the plot is told through cutscenes and mildly broken English, but the story is relatively easy to follow. The game follows a man known as "werewolf" as he goes up against several bio-mutants invented by the evil Dr. Faryan. The instruction manual calls you "war wolf," the game calls you "werewolf," I'm not sure any of that matters - just remember, you're a werewolf and your job is to slice and maim everything that gets in your path. You are granted the power to become a werewolf by the great spirit Kinju - a scraggly looking fellow who acts as your guide through Werewolf: The Last Warrior. In the process, you've got slime monsters, a metal super-villain, a fire monster and more to contend with.

The scraggly old spirit-guide Kinju

The gameplay here is a mixed bag. Throughout most of the game, your character will be in werewolf form and that is a truly wonderful thing. You can do backflips by pressing A+B simultaneously, you can hang from pipes, double-jump, climb walls, you have an effective melee attack, and finally - don't ask me how - you can even shoot a gun on the odd occasion that you pick one up. If you collect 5 of the small dusty grey orbs that are scattered throughout the stages while in werewolf form, you will turn into a super-werewolf for a brief time. The super-werewolf has a stronger attack, higher jump, and generally seems to move slightly faster.

A-woooooooooooo!

If playing as the super-werewolf is the pinnacle of excellence in this game; then playing in human form is the absolute lowest of the low. The human is slower, has no real jump to speak of, his attack is pitiful and his only real means of defense is a powerful scream he lets out when collecting those little anger orbs. Playing as the human is an exercise in futility because there is a constant barrage of enemies, hazards, and other such nonsense that the guy just can't hack it against. To top it off, the guy has far fewer hit points - so all of these dangers popping up will kill you dead real quick. There's a steadfast rule that every player of Werewolf: The Last Warrior should know - red W's are your friend, blue W's are not. The red W will turn your ineffective human being into the awesomeness incarnate known as the werewolf. On the flipside, the blue W will transform you back into that defenseless sack of skin. Stay hairy, my friends. It's the only way you're gonna get ANYWHERE in this game.

That's not to say that playing as the werewolf is a piece of cake. There are a few things that can be more than mildly frustrating about our furry avenger, though I would hardly call them gamekillers.

For starters, it's surprisingly easy to get stuck on a wall when your intention was to jump over it (ala Ninja Gaiden.) This isn't always such a pickle, unless there are bats coming your way and you need to move quickly or in the high rise stage where you need to be super accurate with how you jump from beam to beam. Stages like that one in particular can be beyond frustrating because of that Ninja Gaiden-esque control scheme and all of the hazards coming at you in the level (including lightning strikes that kill you instantly!)

Backflippin' ninja-awesome super-mega-wolf!

Another frustrating aspect of the controls is probably more due to human error - that darn backflip. It takes a very precise hand to handle that backflip accurately and in some levels it's crucial that you repetitively jump from section to section backwards, lest you be zapped by electrical current or stuck by spikes or stalagmites. Also, knowing when and when not to use it is key. If there are pits anywhere near where you think you're going to land - don't use it. Remember that the werewolf takes 3 huge leaps backward and if it lands you into a pool of water or a pit, you're toast. Jumping up and catching ahold of those pipes can also be an exercise in frustration because you'll find yourself whacking aimlessly through the air or spin-jumping when you mean to grab ahold. Again, these problems have more to do with having a deft hand and precise timing rather than programming error.

The music and sound effects are awesome for an early NES game. The soundtrack is full of wailing midi guitars, ominous piano stings, and some catchy, funky boss-battle themes. They may get tedious in levels that you're bound to die in 3 or 4 times, but as far as relatively early NES soundtracks go - Werewolf: the Last Warrior is up there with some of the better Capcom games.

The cutscenes and graphics are also top notch for the time. The level of detail in the cutscenes is impressive - Kinju looks like a dirty and worn man, the monsters look sinister and truly disgusting, and while the transformation sequence is kind of funny (the werewolf face looks a little more like a badger or a fox,) the amount of detail in these scenes is impressive for an 8-bit cart. Character sprites are detailed and have nice shading techniques and the stages have a realistic depth to them. The graphics are comparable to the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.

If you're looking for a challenging game - this is it. I would rank the difficulty level as medium to hard. There are just so many pitfalls that have to be maneuvered past and some of the later bosses are tough to compete against. Honestly, I've had this game for about 20 years and I have still never beaten the darn thing. Getting past the fire monster takes more fortitude, cunning, and patience than I apparently have. Each boss has a strategy to beat and I'm sure if you carve enough time out - you can get past this blazing fast demon - I just haven't got it in me.

Duck & Punch! Duck & Punch! Where is that darn red W?!

So is Werewolf: The Last Warrior a flawless NES title? No. There are a handful of frustrating moments sprinkled throughout and the difficulty level fluctuates wildly from stage to stage. The English translation can be spotty at times, but the effort put into making a cohesive plot and the super detailed cutscenes are worthy of praise. I would recommend Werewolf to fans of Ninja Gaiden and the first TMNT game - all of which have a frustrating difficulty spike but also can be rewarding as well. This game is available right now at Lukie Games for a super reasonable price and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good action-platformer with a monster hero. Halloween is right around the corner so you guys should snag this game up in time for that spooky holiday!

Psychonauts (Xbox/PS2)

Tim Schafer is an underrated genius.

I know, I know. "Genius" is a big word. A word weighty enough to crush a cruise-liner and as misused, abused, altogether overused as an NES zappergun. However, if one were to hit pause and look at the catalog of games that have spilled from his mind and fingertips; it's truly an awesome sight. Writing, programming and/or designing such amazing games as The Monkey Island games, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Brütal Legend, and more. The world of adventure games owes a huge debt to him and the work he pulled off at LucasArts as well as his own Double Fine Productions.

Official Seal of Awesomeness

Sadly, adventure games are more or less a dead genre nowadays. They turned Leisure Suit Larry into a goofy, clunky, unfunny platformer (Box Office Bust,) King Graham is nowhere to be found (Though I read that Telltale Games might reboot Kings Quest) and games like Schafer's own Full Throttle and Grim Fandango should have done way better than they did financially. These are hilarious, well-written, well-designed games. So guys and gals who love a funny, quirky script and an emphasis on plot and puzzles over "bang-bang, shoot 'em ups" jump all over these games when they can find them. Or at least, they should. That's where Psychonauts comes in.

While not an adventure game according to the strictest definitions, Majesco's 2005 game Psychonauts is an action/adventure platformer that (not unlike most of the games I review here,) deserved to sell far more copies than it did. In Psychonauts, the player controls Raz, a gifted young boy training to be a Psychonaut at a psychic summer camp. Training to be a super-secret, ultra-awesome psychic agent. The camp is run by a Patton-esque general gone mad coach Oleander, groovy disco chick Milla Vodello, and cold hard scientist Sasha Nein. Raz makes friends with various other Psychodets all training at the camp and also gets training from Ford Cruller, a batty old man who walks around in various disguises throughout the game and teaches Raz his various psychic abilities.

Ford Cruller droppin' pure gaming science on you

The first thing that you'll notice about Psychonauts are the tremendous and lengthy cutscenes. Those who don't dig humorous banter, plot-crucial cinematics, and a little bit of character development need not apply. For everyone else, this game is a breath of fresh air. In some games, the cinematics take you out of the action - but not in Psychnonauts. It's like watching a really funny Saturday morning cartoon (remember, the ones that used to actually make you laugh?) and then being able to control the action at crucial times. It's not unlike the cinematic nature of Rockstar games such as Bully, The Warriors, or Red Dead Redemption if they were full of quirky, acid-trip-esque characters and hilarious back-and-forth banter.

No Psychonaut ever won a war by dying for his psychic abilities...

Controlling Raz is a piece of cake. Anyone who has played a modern 3d platformer should get the hang of the controls really quickly. Once you start progressing through the game and developing your Psychic abilities, walking around and completing tasks gets easier with things such as the levitation ball to help Raz reach otherwise tough spots. The only real downside with the controls is getting used to mapping out your psychic abilities to the controller (something that was easier to manage on the PC version.) That being said, there are many other games that require you to pick-n-choose which actions you want hot-keyed to your button layout so this should also not be too challenging for folks who are used to this sort of control scheme.

As far as difficulty is concerned, I would rank this game as easy. Like nearly all platform games, there are a couple of spots where you'll get frustrated for dying over a "stupid mistake." Should have jumped sooner, should have jumped later, etc. The game is also packed full of fun if you are the kind of cat who likes to chase down things like "psychic baggage" and other little collectables to raise your psychic ranking. The gameplay is not unlike Conker's Bad Fur Day, which also has a similar difficulty - However, Psychonauts seems to control a little smoother which helps to limit the amount of annoying pitfalls.

The graphics are colorful and the characters designs are definitely original. The various characters in Psychonauts from the camp counselors all the way to the psychodets look like they would fit in nicely in one of those animated Tim Burton flicks ala "Nightmare Before Christmas" or "Corpse Bride." Everyone's got wacky sharp angles and everything from level design to character sprites feels skewed in the most deliberate and wonderful way. As mentioned before, it feels like a wacky version of the best Saturday morning cartoons from your childhood. While the graphics may not have pushed the upper limits of the Xbox or Playstation 2's capabilities, they are more than appropriate for a game as sideways and crazy as this one.

The way with the giant lava pit. That's the ticket!

As well as crisp and game-appropriate graphics, the music is awesome and the voice acting is one of the main highlights of the game. Throughout most of the early stretch of the game, you'll be controlling Raz around the camp - accompanied by some fun, droopy country-esque music with wailing harmonicas and drunken sounding guitar licks. The score shifts into Danny Elfman territory whenever Raz slips into one of the psychic realms. Horns, orchestral stings, etc.

The adventure game genre is more or less a thing of the past. However, once in a while games like Psychonauts will come along that may have the physics of a platform game, but have the humor, heart, and soul of a true adventure game. This game was woefully ignored by the public, so here's your chance to right that mistake! At the time of this article, Lukie Games has a copy for the Xbox right NOW! It's a wonderful game for anyone who likes a fast, funny adventure-style platformer. I also recommend it to anyone who loves games like Conker's Bad Fur Day - it's a very similar game with a slightly more family-friendly shine to it.

Update for our customers in Brazil

Update for our Brazilian customers - Due to the postal strike in Brazil we have temporarily stopped shipping to Brazil. If you placed an order and it has already shipped you will not receive it until after the strike ends. If you have any questions please email us at support@lukiegames.com


Atualização para nossos clientes brasileiros - Devido à greve dos correios no Brasil temos temporariamente interrompido o transporte para o Brasil. Se você fez um pedido e já enviado você não vai recebê-lo até depois da greve termina. Se você tiver alguma dúvida envie um email para support@lukiegames.com

The Original Pokémon Trilogy

Choose your destiny!

Pokémon, or as it is called in Japan Pocket Monsters. What started as a simple game about catching animals and making them fight for our amusement turned into a massive ever expanding multibillion dollar industry with no foreseeable end in sight. Having come a long way since the days of the Gameboy these newer Pokémon games boast 3D graphics and moving sprites. However with all this glam do they still contain the heart that was put into the first trilogy? That what I’ll be reviewing today the first three Pokémon games, Red, Blue, and the special Pikachu Yellow Edition.

Though before we get on that subject lets talk about its history seeing as the series been going strong for more than a decade. When Satoshi Tajiri was young he lived in a suburb outside of Japan where during his free time he would spend his days catching bugs and tadpoles. As he grew older Satoshi decided that he wanted to share this experience with other young people who live in urban areas with no access to nature. From this idea the concept of Pokémon came about. Satoshi gathered up several of his friends Shigeki Morimoto a programmer, and Ken Sugimori an artist, together with them they put together the prototype of the game called “Capsule Monsters”. Satoshi pitched his game and idea to Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, Shigeru loved it and pitched it to Nintendo’s President gaining Nintendo’s support.

These are some of the draft’s for the prototype of the game.

Godzilla battling King Kong? I swear I’ve seen this in a movie somewhere.

Its good to know the game changed a bit from the prototype.

Lapras looked a lot cooler back then.

When Pokémon was being designed Shigeki Morimoto decided to add one additional Pokémon to the games original 150. He made the Pokémon a secret and was planning to use it for post-launch events. Once the game was released it received average sales until it was announced that there was a secret Pokémon which would be given out at an event. This Pokémon was Mew. The games sales skyrocketed and the Pokémon series achieved total popularity with the Japanese people. Later on the idea of bringing the game overseas to other countries was pitched and the localization teams began to work on the games feverishly. In Japan there were three Pokémon Games out, Red, Green, and the third one in the series Blue. Blue was the version that was ported overseas due to it being a more streamlined version of the game as it had better sprites, less glitches, and a better musical score. In 1995 the games were released overseas as Pokémon Red, and Blue. Originally the localization team wanted to change the sprites believing the “cutesy” sprites would never be popular with Americans, Nintendo said no. The game became an overnight success and games flew off the shelves throughout the year.

A year after the games release the Anime adaption of it aptly called Pokémon was released in America and translated by 4Kids entertainment. The show proved to be a huge success and Nintendo followed by creating a new game based on the series. This game was Pokémon Special Pikachu Edition (or Yellow version as it was also called). The game featured a new story in which you played as Ash as he traveled the land seeking to be a Pokémon master, it also had newer sprites and a slightly altered score. It was upon the release of this game that the Pokémon series began to form a multi-million dollar franchise out of it’s popularity.

*Now for some reference seeing as Red, and Blue are the same game I will mostly cite differences between them and Yellow version while ultimately reviewing them as one thing.

Now the overarching point of the games series is to catch all 151 Pokémon which can only be done through trading across games, though in order to get Mew you need to either own a copy of Pokémon Stadium or you needed to go to one of the Nintendo events where Mew was given out. At first this may seem daunting as no game has all the Pokémon but with the incredible popularity of the series just getting one version and trading for the Pokémon exclusive to the other version was and still isn’t that difficult. In order to catch them all linking up with your friends or with a second Gameboy is a necessity and it is stressed that you do this to attain your ultimate task. Now each game on average is missing about eight Pokémon from its roster and has a host of super rares you will spend a lot of time trying to get a hold of.

For your viewing pleasure here are the lists of Pokémon exclusive to certain games and what games have what. Generously prepared by Bulbapedia.

Not only can you trade you can also battle with that spiffy link cable you will be using, Battling is a pivotal part of the game as well as a great deal of skill needs to be developed in order to battle effectively. . . or you can just throw a bunch of legendries in your party and call it a day. The core mechanic of the game centers around battles and the deep system which comprises it. In order to save both time and space I will use a chart previously prepared by Bulbapedia.

Click to Enlarge

Now the battle system in the games based around types and their respective weaknesses. In the series a battle is won by utilizing the advantages and disadvantages of a certain type or types of Pokémon to win a battle. Such as having a Fighting Type battle a Rock type, the rock type is weak to fighting therefore the fighting type should win. There are in some cases situations where this may not occur such as when a critical hit has occurred or if the attacking Pokémon has a negative status effect.

Despite the overly simplistic menus battles are for the most part very deep and require some thought.

Switching between Pokémon is paramount towards victory as having even one Pokémon on your team faint can easily tip the scales when you are trying to battle through hordes of Team Rocket thugs. Now I could go on for hours about the battle system but instead I shall give you my abridged talk on how it works;

• Each Pokémon has strengths and weaknesses according to its type
• All attacks have a type assigned to them, i.e. Tackle being a Normal type move and Flamethrower being a Fire Type move.
• Utilization of these moves and using them against Pokémon which are weak to that type of move typically discerns the victor.
• Its key to understand the weaknesses of your own Pokémon and not send a Water type out to fight an Electric type.
• Its Paramount to understand your Pokémon's strengths like sending a Rock type out to fight an Electric type.
• Having a diverse range of Pokémon types on your team and making sure they know a diverse range of moves for use in different occasions.

A bad matchup if I’ve ever seen one.

Pokémon isn’t just about battling there is also the act of catching the elusive Pocket Monsters.

No relation.

You do this by walking in tall grass, typically after 4-5 steps you will be stopped by the screen flipping out and a change in music. Then the battle screen pops up and you are made to weaken the Pokémon before you can capture it. You do this by battling it and reducing its health to around less than 25%, then you have to toss a Poke Ball at it. From there it’s a matter of waiting to see if the Pokémon is caught and if it happens to break free from the ball you toss another. Sometimes when walking through tall grass you will encounter Pokémon you do not want. You can circumvent them by choosing the Run Away command, or you can defeat them and get yourself some experience points.

Prepare yourself for capturing knave!

Now in this game Pokémon gain strength and evolutions through a leveling process typical of most all RPG’s you gain experience entirely through battle and the only shortcut through the process is through the use of the elusive “rare candy” item which nets you a free level. Now I’m sure you may have just thought “well I’ll just get myself some Rare Candies.” Now that is a foolish idea, for that free level you pay a price, you gain few if any stat yields and as a whole it does more harm then good. The leveling process is simple you defeat Pokémon either through a random battle or through a trainer battle and you level your Pokémon up; now the only real difference between this level system and any other RPG’s is that only the Pokémon that participate in battle gain Experience and those who participate share it meaning that however much you gain its split amongst however many Pokémon you use per causing a opponents Pokémon to faint.

 

Wut?

Here’s where we begin to find differences in the games, the story Red and Blue follows and the story Yellow follows are completely different. So I shall discuss them in turn:

In Pokémon Red and Blue you play as a young upstart from Pallet Town (whom you name) and your dream is to become the best there ever was, and to catch them is your real test and to train them is you cause. You will travel across the land, searching far and wide, and release from you hand the power that’s inside

POKEMON! Its you and me, I know it’s my destiny!

Sorry. I couldn’t help myself. Seriously though your objective is to become the best by defeating the eight Gym Leaders scattered through the region of Kanto and to ultimately defeat the Elite Four while catching all the Pokémon to become a master. Along the way though you will encounter the sinister Team Rocket who will unceasingly do bad things, which forces you to beat them badly and eventually face their leader. Back onto the topic of the Gym Leaders there are eight of them and each one has a theme, Rock, Water, Electric, Grass, etc. So you will need to adjust your team accordingly to face them. There are also other mysteries in the game to seek out, like the meaning of a journal you find in a burned out building, where the cruise liner disappears to, or the true reason behind your rivals appearance in Pokémon Tower.

Now in Yellow the premise remains mostly the same only you are playing as Ash from the television series. You advance through the game where you experience events similar to that which is had in the show itself. These include meeting Jessie and James of Team Rocket, gaining one of each of the original starter Pokémon and having Pikachu follow you around.

D’aaaaaaaaaaaaaw.

Your objective of being the best remains unchanging as you continue the journey of catching all the Pokémon and beating the Elite Four. Two of the Gym Leaders Brock, and Misty have dialogue from the show, but the do not follow you around like faithful Pikachu does.

Now one of the differences between the games is the Rival, he talks more like his counterpart from the Animated Series then he does in the previous games but ultimately still acts the same. He appears in all the same places,and the only major difference is that he has an Eevee on his team. He still appears everywhere though, everywhere. . .

Dude I’m tellin’ yah those graves had totally been robbed before I even got here.

These Pokémon games have a very deep story to them and for younger players things may go completely unnoticed, one of these things is Gary. Over the course of the game you see Gary change as a person as he experiences many different things aside from the feeling of being beat down. Gary is a fairly tragic character throughout the game as he never gets to achieve his own dream regardless to how hard he tries. You also find a journal which talks about the experiments a scientist performed, and put to rest a resentful ghost. This game is really deep, surprisingly so deep that I had to replay these games to fully take in everything.

The game also has its flaws, these come in the form of glitches and battery life. There are a large cabaret of glitches that I won’t go into length about, but its these glitches which one can deliberately cause or accidentally cause that can ruin your game and make you lose everything. The most notably is Missingno. which is a glitch caused by talking to the old man in Viridian and then flying to Cinnabar Island and surfing up and down the coast. Missingno. Will give you 99 of whatever item is in your sixth slot if you beat it, but if you catch it and put it in your PC your game file will become corrupted. The other glitches aren’t nearly as useful and a majority will just ruin your game.

These glitches are usually caused by you doing something the game didn’t intend and an overflow of data occurs where the game searches for something which doesn’t exist. What the game produces is a glitch in either the form of glitch city, or a glitch Pokémon. If you are really interested in these glitches you can find a list of them Here.

All of the Pokémon games up until the fourth generation have an internal battery inside them to store save data, and as all batteries do eventually they will die. The worst part about the battery dying is that you lose everything as a result and are treated to this beautiful screen. . .

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

This isn’t a regular problem as the the batteries generally last a very long time, some people boast that they' to this day have never had to change their batteries out; and even if it does die you can easily get a replacement battery at your local convenience store.

Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow are all great games and are enjoyable to play either casually or in one go. The games have a charm to them that is practically immortal from the silly dialogue to the catchy tunes, you know after a while you will be humming the beats to at least one location.

That’s why he’s paid the big bucks.

The game even periodically rewards you for attaining feats without spoiling you, for every certain amount of Pokémon you catch you get a Key Item which will aid you; despite this the trainers and battles you will face will be challenging but not to hard so long as you grasp the basic strategy of type disadvantages and advantages. I can easily say these are the greatest three games for the Gameboy only closely followed by Dragon Warrior and the the Sword of Hope series. I’d recommend anyone who’s either looking to connect(or reconnect) with Pokémon's roots or wants to give the series a go for the first time, these are the games for you. What makes them even better is that they are all relatively affordable mostly being in the $12 to $18 bracket. I’d recommend you pick up a copy of either and while you are at get yourself a copy of Pokémon Stadium (or a Super Gameboy) so that you can play it on your TV

Not only are the games in color they each have their own respective borders, pretty cool, eh?

I bet you thought I wasn’t going to end with that, well you were wrong.

Haunting: Starring Polterguy (Genesis)

What is WITH that goofy expression?

There's a point in nearly every child's life where they have a firm idea of what they would like to be when they grow up. It's somewhere between age 5 and age 8 where the child has a good long stretch of time devoted to being a fireman, conductor, policeman etc. Sure, Billy wanted to be a superhero at 4, a boat captain by 5, but by 6; he's going to be an astronaut and there's not a darn thing anyone can do about it. Like a few of you, I'm sure; I wanted to be a game designer. I wanted to work on the next Mega Man or scheme up the next platforming masterpiece. Of course by the time I hit middle-school I realized that my Achilles heel is math and since I count on my fingers - that ambition goes right out the window.

As an adult I realize that there is an even bigger hurdle than having absolutely no mathematical skills. As a game designer, you have to be able to sift through insane ideas that work and insane ideas that wont. We've all played countless games that sounded great on paper, but were a confusing, horrific mess in practice. On the other hand, there's games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Toejam and Earl, Earthworm Jim, and more that had no business being good; but by some crazy fluke are absolute classics, worthy of the highest level of praise. Finally, there's the rare class of games that Electronic Arts' "Haunting: Starring Polterguy" falls into - it sounds like a great idea, it IS a great idea, and by that very nature - will fade into obscurity in spite of being a solid, wonderful game.

Haunting has one of the greatest and most straightforward plots in gaming; you control a poltergeist and scare the ever-loving pee out of an obnoxious family. The game was released in 1993 - about 5 or so years after the film Beetlejuice, which was still popular in the early 90's due to an animated series, Action figure line, and its ubiquity on basic cable, USA and HBO. So ghostly creatures scaring off a family by doing bizarre, silly, funny, or grotesque pranks seemed like a great idea on paper.

Boo! Scary Rug Attack!

A great concept is only the first hurdle in making a solid game. The real question is "how does it play?"

I'm happy to report that the gameplay in Haunting is addictive and that the gameplay mechanics are just as inventive as the plot. You control Polterguy through a house laid out in an aerial isometric perspective. In each room there are various objects that emit a sparkling glow when Polterguy gets near them. These items are your traps and can be possessed in order to perform various scares. When a member of the Sardini family is in the same room as you, the idea is to possess as many different objects as possible to raise their fright level. Some of these traps go off automatically, some are controlled by you, and still others are set off by the Sardinis themselves once they are set. There's fire shooting candelabras, spiders, rugs that bleed, skeletons, corpses, visions of death, and more. You also have a few special scares at your disposal such as the "Super Scare" and "Boo-doo" and more. Seeing how many different scares you can pull off in one room before the family member leaves is half of the fun.

Whippin' out the Boo-Doo!

Once you have successfully chased a member of the Sardini family out of the room, you have to collect the green ecto pools left behind before a floating ecto monster will come and suck them up. If you encounter one of these ecto monsters, you can try to fend them off with your kick (which is next to useless) or run to another room and try to scare another family member before your ecto bar runs down. Ecto acts as a timer of sorts - if you run out of ecto before completing the level, you are forced to fight your way through the underground level for more ecto. Each level is completed once all of the Sardinis flee the house from one of the rooms that leads outside. After each level is complete, you are sent to the underground stage in order to earn back any ecto that you expended during the house level.

You will grow to hate the Underground Stages...

There's a handful of dangers that you'll run into in Haunting. Not surprisingly, the Sardini family members cannot see you, so coming into close contact with them is not in the least bit dangerous. However, the dog can not only can see you but is quite a nuisance. The dog alerts ecto monsters, barks to drain your ecto and also calms the fright level of the Sardini family. If a family member is in the room with the dog, your best bet is to steer clear and go after another member until the person has left the room and is fair game. As stated before, the ecto monsters are a pain because they attack to drain your ecto and also suck up any earned ecto once you've chased a family member out of the room. Treat these like the dog and run to the nearest room quickly. Your biggest enemy in this game is time because once your ecto meter runs out you are stuck battling through the underground stage. Dangers such as hands that pop out of walls, bats, and more can drain your life. If you die in the underground stage, that's it. Polterguy is toast.

The presentation of Haunting is decent but neither the graphics nor the sound are the highlight of the game. The gloopy, drippy, screechy sound effects in Haunting are effective - but I've heard better from other games around the same time. The spooky music is a good fit for the game but can be grating at times. I know that games of this era weren't known for their dolby digital surround masterpiece soundtracks, but the sound effects sound tinny and distorted. The graphics are functional and at times colorful and humorous. While nothing to write home about, I would rate the graphics higher than the sound and would say that as far as what the Sega Genesis was offering at the time, the graphics are better than average. I just wish the main character didn't look so darn goofy.

Scared the pants off 'im!

The controls work great - barring only a few minor hiccups here and there. The perspective sometimes hinders your progress as you think you're passing through a doorway but are just rubbing up against the wall. Sometimes your character feels like he's sliding around a little after you're done pressing the direction button, which is perfectly fine in the house stages but frustrating in the underground ones. However, throughout most of the game the controls do exactly what they should do.

I would say that the challenge level for Haunting is between beginner and intermediate difficulty. Sometimes it feels as if nothing is going your way; the dog shows up for every scare, the Sardinis run from the room after only 2 or so traps and you can't seem to get the final member of the family outta the house no matter how many traps you set. Times like that, you'll find yourself in the underground dungeon stage a lot and it will drain your health faster than you'd imagine. I suppose the main strategy for the dungeon is just to keep a slow but steady pace and try not to miss any of the ecto blobs on your journey or else you'll have a tough time trekking all the way back to the beginning of the stage just to get grabbed by a rogue arm when you weren't paying attention. Other times, the game feels like it almost plays itself for you. The family members flee the house after only a room or two, the dog is nowhere to be found, and you slid right out of the room before the ecto monsters arrived. The difficulty curve sometimes feels like luck-of-the-draw, some of it is in setting off the right traps at the right time, and some of it lies in checking your map frequently and building a solid strategy to get those people outta the house in as few steps as possible.

Spooky Kabuki Bed Frame Attack!!

So the ultimate question is, "Why didn't this game go over better?" After all, if you were to do a poll of your closest friends and ask them how many had Haunting, I'm sure most would look at you with that confused puppy dog look. The graphics are decent, the concept is awesome, and the gameplay is solid. I suspect the release of the Sega CD complicated things and hindered the sale of Genesis games such as this. Whatever the case may be, this is an original, worthwhile game that I highly recommend. It's quirky, it's fun, and it'll impress your friends when you tell them you have a game where a ghost with a mohawk scares the piddle out of a well-to-do family. Give this one a try!